Micky Dolenz As the Last Monkee Standing: ‘It’s Time to Take Off the Black Armband and Just Celebrate’

Four years after the death of Mike Nesmith left him the last Monkee standing, Micky Dolenz says he’ll be too busy singing in 2026 to bring anybody down about that.

“I feel it’s time to take off the black armband and just celebrate the whole Monkees project,” the 80-year-old musician and actor tells Billboard. His Micky Dolenz: 60 Years of the Monkees tour kicks off Feb. 12 in Solana Beach, Calif., with 22 dates so far announced into November. “The show’s not gonna be a memorial. It’s not going to be heavily tributed. I’m just gonna sing the songs and tell the stories.” The 60 Years performance will be a bit more formatted than his other endeavors, however.

“I’ll be focusing more on the chronology and on the TV show, using videos from the original episodes,” Dolenz explains. “I still have people ask, ‘So what was it like when the group got the TV show?’ I’m like, ‘Omigod, have you ever heard of a thing called Wikipedia?’” he laughs. “There’s still a lot of people who are surprised when I explain how it came to be, that it was a musical comedy sitcom on NBC with us cast in it, not a band in the traditional sense. Even at the time, frankly, people didn’t get it…because it was the first time anything like that had happened. It’s happened many times since — Glee, for instance. They create the act and then have the acts go out. I want people to understand how the Monkees came about, so I’ll be focusing on that, as well as the songs.”

Dolenz, Nesmith, Davy Jones and Peter Tork became the Monkees in 1965, from a casting call that included actors and musicians (including, famously, Stephen Stills). The TV show was created by Bob Rafelson, playing off the success of the Beatles films A Hard Day’s Night and Help!. With Don Kirshner overseeing the music, the Monkees hit big with four consecutive No. 1, multi-platinum albums — beginning with the self-titled debut in the fall of 1966 – and six Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits, including the chart toppers “Last Train to Clarksville,” “I’m a Believer” and “Daydream Believer.”

After the TV show finished in 1968, the quartet — which fought producers for songwriting and other creative input — continued on through 1970, then reunited in 1986 for its 20th anniversary and continued on in various incarnations. Dolenz is the sole Monkee who’s been part of the group throughout its career, and he was touring with Nesmith up until Nesmith’s death on Dec. 10, 2021, at the age of 78.

“John Lennon put it very succinctly, that the Monkees are like the Marx Brothers,” Dolenz notes. “If you appreciate that, if you understand that, you can get your head around it and it makes a lot more sense. I remember Mike Nesmith said when we went on the road for real and performed our first concerts, just the four of us, it was like Pinocchio becoming a little boy.

“But having said that, the producers must have had that in mind. It wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t an accident. It was premeditated in the sense that if the show got on the air and did well, the records would hopefully do well, too. That was the plan, obviously…and then we’d go on the road and all of that. If they had not intended that, or at least hoped for it, they would not have bothered to have cast four guys who would sing, who could play, who could write, who could act, who could perform. They could’ve hired four actors, dubbed (the singing and playing) in, used cutaways. So that’s why I feel this was all part of the plan.”

Dolenz’s plan didn’t include becoming the Monkees’ drummer, however. “My audition piece was ‘Johnny B. Goode,’ Chuck Berry, played on guitar,” he recalls. “But when they said, ‘You’re the drummer,’ I said, ‘Yeah, but I play guitar.’ They said, ‘Yeah, we have enough guitar players,’ so I was like, ‘Great, where do I start?’ It was like when I was cast as Circus Boy, they said, ‘You’re gonna ride an elephant.’ ‘Great! Where do I start?’ I’m an actor; I’ll do what the part requires. So I started drum lessons. “

Dolenz says the chronological approach of the 60 Years shows will allow him to explore some of the less-celebrated, later Monkees works such as The Monkees Present and Changes. But he promises fans will get what they came for. “They know they will always get the hits,” Dolenz says, “and over the years I’ve learned that as long as they know they’re gonna get the hits, then I can do deep cuts or even do material from other artists — not a lot, but occasionally. But they’re always tied to a story that makes sense and is part of the song.

“But it’s always tough because there was so much great material, and so many of those deep cuts that actually got attention — many of them because videos had been done for ’em for the show, even though they might not have ever been singles. But they became very well-known because of the television show, so people know ’em and ask for ’em.”

In addition to the concerts, Dolenz has also released his second children’s book, Lalu Toot Toot, illustrated by his eldest daughter Ami Dolenz. His first, Gakky Two-Feet, was published in 2006.